OpenOffice.org is is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office.

Openoffice.org is written in C and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL and SISSL Open Source licenses, OpenOffice.org allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source. And, because the file format for OpenOffice.org is XML, interoperability is easy, making future development and adoption more certain.

I have been using OO for about
three years now and have saved many hundreds of dollars not having to buy MSFT products
because my old computer bit the dust. I luv it and so will you. It reads and writes microsoft format. WOW! Microsoft must hate these guys.

I've been using OpenOffice for a few years now and find it to be complete, efficient and a great alternative to MS Office. It is complete with dictionary (spell check) and thesaurus. The suite imports/exports in MS formats as well. There is a very well written user guide in PDF format available on the OpenOffice web site. You can't beat the price either!

I've used the word processor in this package and the database programs. Both compare very well with M$'s versions. I've typed up numerous school papers, research papers and essays, couldn't tell the difference between Word and Open Office. But, my favorite feature of this bundle is the export directly to PDF feature. Great for writing tutorials and research papers that you plan on publishing. Excellent program, and you can't beat the price ;)!

OpenOffice contains a great software bundle that certainly gives Microsoft Office a run for it's money (literally)...

All the packages are there (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, database, Drawing, Web Editing etc.) and all work well with M$ Office files as well as their own xml formats...

Their are Plenty of features available for newbies and professionals alike, as well as the usual proofing tools like spell checking, hyphenation and thesaurus... The only thing I couldnt find was a grammar-checker, but then again, I dont really use it myself...